Quick pastry crust

Serves: 8

If they like it, it serves 8 otherwise

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: No cooking required

Totaltime: 5 minutes

Make several disks of dough at once and freeze what you don’t need. For best results, use a grater to coarsely shred the butter. For a Sweet Pastry Crust, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of fine sugar.

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter,frozen and grated
1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon fine salt
3 tablespoons ice water, approximately

Preparation

1.In the cold bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, flour, and salt. Mix on slow speed just until the butter is blended with flour
2.Add just enough of the water to moisten the dough enough so that it forms a ball.
3.Remove the dough from the bowl, gather the dough together with your hands and flatten it into a disk. Enclose in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow the butter to firm and the gluten to relax. (This dough may also be frozen.)
4.Roll the dough out to 1/8- to ¼-inch thick.
5.Fold the pastry in half and carefully position it over a tart pan. Unfold, carefully easing the pastry into the corners of the tart pan
6.Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to reset the butter
7.To prebake the shell, line the pastry carefully with foil and fill the liner with aluminum pie weights or dried beans
8.Bake at 425º for 10-20 minutes, remove the liner with the pie weights (also called a “blind”), and continue baking for 4 minutes for a partially baked crust or for 10 minutes for a fully baked crust. The bottom should be totally set and the pastry beginning to color. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
Makes just enough dough for a 9- to 10-inch, shallow, removable-bottom tart pan or regular depth pie pan.